10 obsolete technologies that refuse to die

When you want send a message to someone you probably head for your email account, rather than a telegram. However, once upon a time, technologies such as the telegraph, typewriters, fax machines and even record decks were depended on.

From fax machines to typewriters

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When you want to send a message to someone you probably head for your email account, rather than a telegram. However, once upon a time, technologies such as the telegraph, typewriters, fax machines and even record decks were depended on.

These technologies served their purpose for a while, then either evolved into cheaper, faster, better forms or simply disappeared. Yet some - such as fax machines, landline phones, and instant cameras - just refuse to die, despite better digital alternatives.

Here are ten technologies that should be dead and buried, yet still cling to life.

1. The Telegraph

At the telegram's peak in 1929, more than 200 million were sent. However, by 2005, that number had dwindled to 21,000 in the US. This decrease resulted in Western Union sending its last telegraphic transmission on January 27, 2006.

Subsequently, iTelegram took over Western Union's telex network, though you can access it via the web. It's still a fairly pricey form of communication however. Western Union is still around too, though its primary customers appear to be internet scam artists hoping to dupe suckers into wiring them money.

2. Typewriters

In the age of web tablets and smartphones, typewriters are a bit like Fred Flintstone's car - strictly for cave dwellers. Yet people still buy and use them. In 2009, for example, the New York City Police Department made headlines when it spent nearly $1m on typewriters, mostly so it could continue to use multipart carbon forms for processing evidence.

Still, the typewriter's primary market appears to be snooty novelists who claim they cannot compose on any technology introduced since Hemingway died. Case in point: last December, author Cormac McCarthy's 1950's era Olivetti Lettera 32 portable sold for an astounding $255,000 at auction. Proceeds were donated to the Santa Fe Institute. McCarthy promptly went out and bought another $20 manual typewriter to take its place.

These obsolete technologies didn't get the memo about their extinction - maybe because someone wrote it on a typewriter and faxed it to them.

3. Fax machines

Despite advances in internet fax services and the availability of dirt-cheap scanners, this office machine of the 1980s is still with us - more than half a million of them were purchased over the past 12 months, according to the NPD Group, a market research company. It's not just people who still wear shoulder pads and buy Cyndi Lauper albums. These screechy, annoying gadgets continue to attract lawyers, insurance companies, and others nervous about the authenticity of signed documents without an ink-based scribble on them.

"Their endurance is in part a testament to the failure of digital signatures that would allow us to email certified copies of contracts and similar documents," says NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin.

"As with electronic voting machines, there remains a level of societal scepticism over the viability of digitally certified documents."

As for the rest of you? Get over it, writes Tom Adams, VP of marketing for Protus, the parent company of online fax service MyFax.

"Fax machines are just so 1980s," he says.

"If you're still using one, it's time to put it in the attic next to your legwarmers and that copy of The Breakfast Club on VHS and move to an internet fax service instead."

4. Landline telephones

According to the latest survey from the US National Center for Health Statistics, nearly 25 percent of Americans have ditched their landlines for a mobile phone. Another 22 million or so Americans pay for a VoIP service. Still, that leaves well over 100 million households firmly tethered to a landline

Why? Because nothing says "I've fallen and I can't get up" quite like a landline. Only five percent of US adults age 65 or older live in wireless-only households. As that population gradually moves toward the pearly gates, landlines will likely follow.

5. Turntables

CDs and MP3s were supposed to kill the long-playing album for good. Instead, vinyl LPs have clung to life - and along with them, the turntable. Sales of vinyl albums in the US actually increased last year, from 1.9 million to 2.8 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan, though that's still just a drop in the ocean compared to CDs (374 million) and digital tracks (1.2 billion).

These days, you can get a digital turntable that plugs into your PC and converts groove-laden tunes into digital files for carrying on your iPod. Either way, this is a good thing; life's just better when listened to at 33 and 1/3.

These obsolete technologies didn't get the memo about their extinction -maybe because someone wrote it on a typewriter and faxed it to them.

6. Cash registers

Ka-ching! Despite the emergence of computerised point-of-sale systems that can automatically track inventory, identify your top-selling products and best customers, and simplify back-end accounting, thousands of retail stores still rely on what's essentially a cigar box that can do simple maths.

"The basics of the cash register haven't changed since it was invented 127 years ago," notes Tom Greenhaw, founder of CashierLive, a company that offers web-based point-of-sale software.

"While [it] might be powered by electricity now, it still can't tell you what your store has in stock (and it never will). Computers with point-of-sale software are expensive, which is why a majority of small retailers still stick with the dying cash register. But web technology is finally coming to eliminate the cash register."

Basic cash registers - and really, cash itself - are analogue dinosaurs in the digital jungle of financial transactions. It's time for them to check out.

7. Instant cameras

Like their distant cousins the snooty novelists, many camera buffs eschew digital for the comfort of darkrooms and the aroma of developer fluid. Even the venerable Polaroid Instant Photo is making a comeback.

The original Polaroid company filed for bankruptcy (for the second time) in 2008 and had its assets purchased in April 2009 by a private holding company. Despite that, the newly revived firm has introduced an updated version of the One camera that, yes, uses instant film. That trip down memory lane will set you back £55 for the camera - plus a steep £1 per shot. Polaroid has even hired pop diva Lady Gaga as "creative director". If Polaroid can survive Lady Gaga, it may be with us for a long, long time.

8. Disc drives

Shiny plastic platters of all kinds - CD, DVD, even Blu-ray - are destined to eventually follow the various floppies, Zip discs, Click drives, and other portable storage media into the digital graveyard. These days, many of us get our software via downloads and our entertainment streamed to whatever device happens to be convenient. Yet discs and disc drives persist.

"You can download almost anything today and stream much of what you can't download," says Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group.

"Flash drives have dropped substantially in price, and we don't really need more than 64GB anyway (and you can get that in an iPod). So why don't we say hasta la vista to the disk drive and finally move to something lighter, more robust, and less noisy?"

These obsolete technologies didn't get the memo about their extinction -maybe because someone wrote it on a typewriter and faxed it to them.

9. Cathode ray tubes

Cathode ray tubes have all but disappeared from offices, living rooms, and retail shelves. Yet more than 90 million CRTs were sold last year, says an MIT report - almost all of them to Asia and Latin America.

Why? Because they are both durable and cheap, and - guess what? - they still offer higher-quality pictures than LCDs and plasma sets, according to the image calibration experts at DisplayMate. Also in high demand: old, discarded CRTs, because their lead-lined glass is needed for manufacturing new ones.

10. CB Radios

Though not as wildly popular as they were, thousands of Citizens Band radios are sold each year.

Geeky greybeards will remember that the first CompuServe chat forum was called 'CB Simulator'. From there it's easy to draw a direct line to today's chat, IM, and Twitter clients. Still, in the era of ubiquitous 24/7 communication, CB radios are a relic, argues Jim Gardner, president of marketing consultancy Strategy 180, who bought his first Cobra CB radio in 1977 (his handle is 'Moonshiner').

"Although not 10-17 (urgent), my 10-20 (position) on the issue is that given that the peak of CB radios' mainstream adoption coincided with bell bottoms, disco, and orange shag carpeting, the advent of push-to-talk mobile phones should have buried this icon of bad Burt Reynolds films years ago," he says.

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Comments

Paul said: Comments,Paul,As for downloading large Files - Virgin Media gets a bit teechy if you download more than 1GB in 24 hours by slapping a cap on you, which is a pain to get it removed.

John Smith said: Comments,John Smith,So "US this" "US that". I don't care about the US. What about more UK "This" and "That"'s? I live in the UK, This site is PCAdvisor.co., guess what? UK! Quit bumming the overrated, oversized US, and concentrate on the UK already!
And do people actually WANT to "move on" in to a digital world? It's only the media and arrogant giants like M$ who are forcing us to change. "Upgrading" OSs all the time, forcing people to waste even more money on practically the same keyring with a different design and maybe an extra gadget. Flat/Plasma/widescreen TVs, HD, 3D... Who cares?It's all the same, just a lot more expensive and a little bit different. Quit wasting money on "revolutionary new ideas".

sirjohng said: Comments,sirjohng,Get over yourself Mr Adams of Protus, what arrogance you have telling people to ditch a perfectly legitimate form of communication with which they are familiar and uses the one form of communication that very rarely breaks down - the telephone line. It makes a good backup when the broadband system goes down as ours has for 8 working days this year and you can easily scribble a message too (yes that is with a pen - so last century). Perhaps you should think outside your box?

soulman said: Comments,soulman,Def agree with all above, old tech is more sercure from hackers, snoopers, crashes, viruses etc until digital solves all thse problems, i'm still gonna use 'dated' tech along side digi. And yes the writer of the article is a bit up his own there.

Al said: Comments,Al,Well one of the main reasons that fax machines are still around is that a faxed document is legally binding whereas an email is not.

Anthony O'Brien said: Comments,Anthony O'Brien,"You can download almost anything today and stream much of what you can't download," says Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group..............and how would Mr Enderle squeeze High Definition video down a 2Mb tube. Come on, technology can't be expected to die until there is a widespread, cheaper alternative............don't you just love the "ANALYSTS".

YD said: Comments,YD,I agree with Nick (sorry, I meant Simon) - you come across as snooty, arrogant and I would add a little childish. While some of the technologies seem redundant many of your 'obsolete' technologies are still going strong because they have a lower cost and are more reliable - not to mention much more secure - than their digital equivalents.It always makes me laugh when the first thing that is demoed in a mobile phone store is how to send a text or play music. They seem to forget the original use for a phone - to speak to another human being!PS. I particularly liked the quotes from the 'independent' sources, who had absolutely no vested interest whatsoever - a perfect example of insightful journalism!

Robin said: Comments,Robin,Why are landlines needed. 1. they are reliable. 2. they are needed to get credit in many cicumstances. 3. they are so much cheaper than mobiles. 4. they don't crash when you walk past a wall.

Hilmi Al-Kindy said: Comments,Hilmi Al-Kindy,Disk based media will not go away while there are still countries where internet connections are unreliable or just too expensive to use when it comes to downloading big packages. Besides, Unless I have a really fast connection, very big software packages are faster obtainned by driving to the store, picking up the program and coming back home. There is also the touchy feely issue. I like knowing that I own a physical copy of the software, just incase the company goes bust and I lost my installation.
My topmost reason for supporting discs is that many companies just do not bother to cater for the middle east region online. (Apple, I am looking at you, UAE does not represent the entire region). The most pirated software in Oman is the software you can not obtain easily off the shelf.

Paul said: Comments,Paul,My Sky box has to be connected to a landline - are you saying Sky is obsolete?

Simon said: Comments,Simon,Wow. You come across as just a little snooty and arrogant in this article - I doubt that was your intention though.
Here's why these some of these 'dinosaurs' won't die. Typewriters don't crash out of action, which is handy when you have string of criminals to process. Landlines don't lose their signal, no matter where you live. CDs persist because not everyone has the means to download the software from the internet.
If something is reliable, it will continue to be used. Just like my CRT TV - it's 12 years old and still going strong.

Jim said: Comments,Jim,Missed the telex - bet there are some still somewhere